Codemasters hacked, personal data stolen

If you have any sort of Codemasters account, you might want to start changing your passwords. The publisher announced that its website was hacked last Friday, and user data compromised.

If you have any sort of Codemasters account, you might want to start changing your passwords. The developer and publisher has announced that its website was hacked last week, and user data compromised.

On Friday, June 3, a mystery hacker got into the Codemasters.com website, gaining access to the Codemasters EStore, Codemasters CodeM database, and other sites. Codies says that "As soon as the intrusion was detected, we immediately took codemasters.com and associated web services offline in order to prevent any further intrusion." Over the next days, it launched "a thorough investigation in order to ascertain the extent and scope of the breach," and the news isn't good.

The mystery hacker would have gained access to names and addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted passwords, order histories, screen names, dates of birth, biographies, IP address, Xbox Live Gamertags and more. Codies says while it cannot confirm this data was stolen, it has to assume it was.

E-mails are going out to those who might have been affected, and Codies offers this advice:

For your security, in the first instance we advise you to change any passwords you have associated with other Codemasters accounts. If you use the same login information for other sites, you should change that information too. Furthermore, be extra cautious of potential scams, via email, phone, or post that ask you for personal or sensitive information. Please note that Codemasters will never ask you for any payment data such as credit card numbers or bank account details, nor will Codemasters ask you for passwords or other personal identifying data. Be aware too of fraudulent emails that may outwardly appear to be from Codemasters with links inviting you to visit websites. The safest way to visit your favourite websites is always by typing in the address manually into the address bar of your browser.

The Codemasters website will be down until a new one launches "later this year," instead redirecting to the company's Facebook page. For now, this doesn't have helpful information for those who might be concerned about the hack, mostly listing press coverage of its games.

This comes shortly after Sony finally got back on its feet following the PlayStation Network hack, which also saw user data stolen. As part of making amends, Sony offered $1 million in idendity theft protection. Hopefully Codies will also make gestures beyond mere apologies for those affected by its hack. The Internet's a scary place, kids.